The plan was first heard of in around 2001, when Professor Loren Cordain, of
Colorado State University’s health and exercise department published ‘The
Paleo Diet’ – and the regime has since soared in popularity.

However, experts now claim that even just eight weeks on the diet can cause
rapid weight gain and health problems.

The study, carried out by researchers at the University of Melbourne, has
prompted them to issue a warning about ‘fad’ diets with little or no
scientific evidence behind them.

“To put that in perspective, for a 100kg person, that’s the equivalent of 15kg
in two months. That’s extreme weight gain”, said Professor Andrikopoulos.

“This level of weight gain will increase blood pressure and increase your risk
of anxiety and depression and may cause bone issues and arthritis.

“For someone who is already overweight, this diet would only further increase
blood sugar and insulin levels and could actually pre-dispose them to
diabetes.

“We are told to eat zero carbs and lots of fat on the Paleo diet.

“Our model tried to mimic that, but we didn’t see any improvements in weight
or symptoms. In fact, they got worse. The bottom line is it’s not good to
eat too much fat.”

Interestingly, Prof Andrikopoulos says that a Mediterranean style diet is the
best for people with pre-diabetes or diabetes.

He explained: “It’s backed by evidence and is a low-refined sugar diet with
healthy oils and fats from fish and extra virgin olive oil, legumes and
protein.”

He went on to say that the ‘media hype’ around diets such as the Paleo, are
particularly driven by celebrity chefs and celebrity weight-loss stories and
are leading more and more people to try ‘fad’ diets – which are backed by
little evidence.